For the next 30 days I am going to place the emphasis of this daily post on one of the most important pillars of sound leadership practices: Self Care.
We have all told and re-told the story about what the flight attendant would instruct us at the beginning of the flight in case of a significant drop of air pressure. If traveling with small children you would obviously put your mask on first so your brain is not depleted from oxygen and have the wherewithal to then easily place the mask on your child’s face.
For those of us who are experiencing rapid and unprecedented changes in our external environments (i.e. bank closures, pandemics, corporate restructuring) it’s essential to maintain a healthy balance within our internal environment.
The pillars of self care that will enable us to build up our internal reserves to ward off the on coming stressors would include:
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Sleep
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Nutrition
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Mindset
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Relaxation
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Movement
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Spiritual connection
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Play
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Hydration
For selfish reasons I will continue to explore, monitor, and share about my personal journey toward consistently getting enough quality sleep during the night to sustain my energy throughout the day.
Last night was effective. I slept for four hours, got up briefly for a bathroom break, returned to bed and rested comfortably before falling back to sleep for another three hours. I woke up again only to fall back to sleep relatively quickly for another hour.
As I writing this post to you I am sipping on my 8 oz of water with Himalayan pink salt and lemon. to be followed by 16 oz. of water. I will wait 1/2 hr. before eating breakfast.
I have learned, in my journey, that I am likely deficient in magnesium which is a mineral that supports better sleep. I am now taking a supplement in addition to consciously choosing foods that have high concentration of magnesium like spinach, avocados, and almonds (which were already part of my daily diet) and what I will be adding soon is a square of 90% dark chocolate.
I played pickleball once in the a.m. yesterday for about 2 hours followed by playing in the late afternoon for about an hour. I took a brief hot shower before bed.
As long as I can make consistent incremental progress in these various practices then I am assured that I will see substantial gains in my ability to strengthen my immune system and make sure that the rapid changes that are occurring outside of my control no longer compromise my internal state of well being.
